Regular school bus service still a no-go in East Aurora

For almost 50 years, East Aurora School District 131 officials have said there have been conversations in the district about whether to offer regular, every day busing to all students.

While the district offers busing for some specialized programs and special education students, it is the only district in Kane County that does not offer busing for most students to and from their home schools, according to the Regional Office of Education.

Recently, West Aurora announced it would pilot later rounds of busing in part to encourage participation in after-school activities. At the same time, Pace bus route changes left at least one East Aurora student temporarily with no way to get to school.

But East Aurora School Board members and officials say there are no imminent plans to work toward bringing busing to the district, in part because of the district's inability to bring in enough money from local taxes and the level of state funding it has received in recent years.

"It's not that school buses are not important," said school board member Kimberly Hatchett. "It's just there's so many things on the list, and with the funding that we have, it's fallen to the lower end of the list."

East Aurora offers busing to and from the Benavides Kindergarten Center and the John C. Dunham STEM Partnership School at Aurora University, and for early childhood programs and for special education students.

Expanding those offerings "is not an option right now" without a large grant, said East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson. She said other districts might rely on local taxes, but East Aurora relies heavily on state funding that, in recent years, has been cut.

Shawnee Rickette, whose daughter missed a week of school when Pace dropped the stop where she catches a bus to school, said she was "shocked" when she learned the district did not provide busing, because she views East Aurora as a suburban area.

Pace later returned her daughter's bus stop to its schedule, after calls from the school district, city and township officials.

The district's resistance to busing dates back to at least 1966, when one neighborhood asked for busing and the school board declined because of the cost, according to a 2003 Chicago Tribune article.

About a decade later, according to the Tribune, the district challenged an Illinois State Board of Education mandate that it adopt busing to create more racial equality. The district filed a lawsuit in Kane County Circuit Court that eventually made its way to the state Supreme Court, where in the early 1980s a trial court's decision in favor of District 131 was upheld.

In 2005, the district held a referendum on busing that spokesman Matt Hanley said was rejected by 59 percent of voters. At the time, surveys and citizen groups had indicated residents were in favor of busing and were willing to pay for it.

Hanley and several board members pointed to the referendum vote as an example of community members showing they were not in favor of district-wide busing.

Hanley said busing is always on the minds of district administrators and parents, but he said it would not be possible to consider paying for busing because the state has fallen behind on aid owed to the district.

The school board has recommended the district look into whether students' distance from school is tied to dropout and truancy rates, said board member Kirsten Strand. That could dictate whether busing might help solve some of those problems, she said.

"It's certainly something that we're all open to talking about, looking further at," she said. "But funding is a huge piece of it, and also recognizing that in years past the community was pretty clear that it was not something that they wanted."

Johnson said the lack of busing "somewhat" hurt graduation rates. Students who walk to school face heavy traffic and bad weather, she said.

In an ideal world, Hatchett said, she thinks East Aurora and every school district should offer students busing. School buses are a safer way to get to and from school, she said.

But, with limited funding, she said there are other areas of higher priority, such as children's education.

"I think East Aurora is being very prudent with what East Aurora puts budget dollars toward," she said.

In the meantime, Rickette's 15-year-old daughter relies on Pace to get from their apartment to school.

Rickette learned East schools didn't provide busing when she moved to the district from Chicago nine years ago, and said she pays about $60 a month to get her daughter to and from East Aurora High School.

"I can understand why homeowners did not want their taxes raised," she said.

But had she known about the lack of busing when she moved here, she said she would have tried harder to find housing on the West Side.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 08, 2015, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Regular bus service still a no-go in district - East Aurora president: Program not an option without large grant" —
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